Barefoot in Bishan

I just got my sea shipment from Philippines and was reunited with my old pair of Speedo slip-on sandals. My wife invited me to buy some groceries at Junction 8. I was so excited I quickly wore my sandals. I thought it was good exercise. This was a special pair of sandals because it had accupressure points.

Half way there, my foot was already quite painful and sensitive. I told my wife that I had to walk slowly because I still had to endure three fourths of the distance, do groceries and come back.

Still on my way there, the strap of the sandals had come undone. This pair had been sitting in a closet in my condo having constant humidity which probably caused the adhesives to give way. So, I decided to take off my sandals and walk barefoot. It was almost 9pm so most of the shops were already closing... I walked barefoot for more than 500meters into a Hang Ten store. Luckily, they had a sale on sandals for S$15 and they had my size 45...

Moral of the story: Test your gear before you embark on the journey. Especially long unused ones...

Siem Reap Adventures Day 1

We had to wake up early (4am) to make our 6am flight to Siem Reap. The Siem Reap airport is very nice with a resort type feel to it. ASEAN passport holders do not need visa. There is also an efficient e-visa counter for other passport holders.

Since we only had 2 full days, we quickly went to business. We checked-in at our hotel - Golden Temple Villa which was recommended by my colleague Leona. It was clean and relatively new - a bargain for $15 / night for a Queen sized bed. It's only 5 minutes away from the Old Market where the bars and restaurants are. So you have the cheap place to stay without the noise of the bars. A couple of minor things I didn't like about it though: (1) the steps are pretty steep (Later, I would soon find out why it was called temple villa because most temples were designed to have steep steps hehehe) and being on the third floor didn't help; (2) the road is not well lit at night walking back to the hotel - so better get a tuktuk. In general, I am happy with the place and recommend it if you are travelling on a budget.

How I Rate Temples:
I recommend that you can get a canbypublication Siem Reap Visitor's Guide. It lists down the important tourist information including the temple ratings - whether must see or not. We visited all the temples that were rated 3 or 4 diamonds (with 4 being the interesting). Based on my experience we need to add 2 more categories to make it tourist-centric:
(a) Must See Rating - should I see this place?
4 - if you only have 1 day in Siem Reap go see this
3 - if you only have 2 days in Siem Reap visit this
2 - if you are trying to see all temples
1 - for die hard temple lovers; go for a massage
(b) Shade - will I get sunburned?
4 - excellent shade
3 - you've got a variety of shade in the temple structure
2 - shade will mostly be temple's structure shadow. Be prepared to get toasted - bring sunblock
1 - if you don't want to get sunburn. Don't visit between 10am to 3pm
(c) Steepness - will my legs hurt after visiting this place?
4 - be prepared to get on your hands and knees
3 - mix of hands and knees to ups and downs
2 - a few ups and downs; different levels
1 - a few uneven steps

First Stop: Angkor Thom (Bayon, Terrace of The Elephants, Terrace of the Leper King)
Bayon Rating: Must See - 4; Shade - 2; Steepness - 3
Angkor Thom is like the walled city of Intramuros in Manila. It has several important temples within it's walls. We entered the South Gate where we started our tour with the Bayon temple. Bayon is famous for the face on the four sides of the temple towers. It is rumored to be the face of Jayaraman VII and Buddha combined.

We further made our way to the other temples within the vicinity. Most notable are the bas relief of elephants and khmer figures on the walls of the Terraces. The carvings are quite intricate compared to that of Bayon.

Lunch at Khmer Kitchen
We were so tired after our first temple experience we decided to satisfy our sense of taste and headed brunch at 11am. At Khmer Kitchen, in the heart of old town, we ordered 4 dishes with unlimited rice. Baked Pumpkin with Beef, Chicken with Basil, Fish Amok and Spring Rolls all for $15. Khmer cuisine reminds me of Indian, Thai and Vietnamese with spice and sweetness rolled into one. Famous regional ingredients include coconut milk and palm sugar. A highly recommended restaurant: fresh food and good prices.

After lunch, we walked around old market and saw your wet market cum dry goods stalls selling silver, silk and carvings. We went back to the hotel for a siesta until 230pm.

Second Stop: The Great Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat Rating: Must See - 4; Shade - 2 to 3; Steepness - 3
The grandest temple of them all = The Angkor Wat. For photographers, there are two best times to take pictures of Angkor Wat - sunrise and afternoon. After 9am, the sun is high up behind the temple and you'll mostly be shooting with the sun behind you. Two places you need to see are the well preserved carvings on the east face of the inner temple and you have to make it up to the temple - warning climbing risk -it's a level 4 climb up. Expect the climb down to be a long queue as there is only 1 side to the temple with railing. We decided to climb down on our hands and knees. Imagine all this great structure built in the 1100 AD. Just awesome...

Third Stop: Phnom Bakheng
Rating: Must See - 1; Shade - 2; Steepness - 2 to 3;
I wanted to watch the sunset with my wife. The recommended Sunset place was this hill with Phnom Bakheng temple. It's a long 20 minute trek up unless you pay for the elephants to take you up ($15 going up and $10 going down, seriously). I think the view at that time of the year is overrated (hazy view of Angkor Wat) and I wouldn't recommend going up there. It started getting dusty with all the people rushing to go down the trail before it dark. I saw a poor lady with high heels daintily trying to walk down the steps. I thought to myself - she probably rode the elephant going up. :)

Dinner: FCC
I heard a lot about FCC from the Angkor Photography Festival. Most of the lectures were held there last November. There is currently a photography exhibit going on at the second floor of the restaurant of B&W pictures. It's on the higher end scale of the dinner places with each person spending $10-$15 on a 3 set meal. We tried their set meal but ordered different dishes. For starters, we had cream of vegetable and dry shrimp salad. For main course, we had the chicken with cuscus and the fish. It was an excellent meal particular the dry shimp salad which had a zing to it. We enjoyed the romantic setting (open sky, by the roadway, with a pool with letters FCC lit by candles). We couldn't order dessert with the filling meal so we decided to hit the Central Market to find shopping deals.

Back to Town for After Dinner Activities...
We took a tuktuk back to Central Market. It wasn't crowded - only cleaner place to buy the silk, silver and carvings. I saw a few shops selling overruns of Levi's, Mossimo, Gap apparel but I still found the price a bit expensive at $18 for a pair of shorts - by Philippine standards it wasn't really a bargain.

We decided to go for dessert and found this place called BubbleT. It's like your Zagu or Bubble Tea in Singapore. I liked the Ginger-Lemon-Honey which was freshly made. It had a kick and was good for my throat.

Massage for $6
The night was not over. After a gruelling day walking arond the temples, we decided to try their foot massage at $6 good for 1 hour. The name of the place Try Islands Foot Spa. Being foot massage junkies in the Philippines, we were curious as to the massage style. The masseuse was delayed because they didn't have they seats for them to sit on while the massage us. She went over to their other branch across the street to get extra seat hehehe. I found the pressure points at the foot could've been pressed harder. At the end of the day, it was a good way to relieve the tired feet from the day's adventure.

More to come on Siem Reap Adventures Day 2...

Cambodia or Cambodge?

When I heard Cambodia being referred to as "Cambodge", I thought someone was trying to bastardize the name or trying to say Cambodia in a stylish way. I was wrong on both accounts. It's actually the French translation for Cambodia.



Just came back from Siem Reap last weekend - had a great time with the wife exploring the old temples, tasting the Khmer cuisine and enjoying the body massages. It was a great 2 full days of relaxing vacation at your own pace.

All of these for just under US$500 all in from Singapore for 2 (airfare, guide, entrance, food... I mean everything!). How?
1. Airfare. Booked via Jetstar (which flies 3x a week) - SIN-SRP-SIN. Two to go $100 each.
2. Accomodations vary but we chose decent airconditioned room for $15 /night at the Golden Temple Villa.
3. Entrance to the temples $40 each for 3 day visitor's pass.
4. Food is generally cheap at $3-4 a dish.
5. Transportation. We chose an airconditioned car ($22/day). I recommend Ros Phansy - I found him on the Internet and just contacted him. He picked us up at the airport to discuss our itinerary.
6. Guide fee. It's also pretty standard at $25/day but because of miscommunication we ended up not booking a guide. We thought it was still ok. I remember my honeymoon to Europe (Italy/Greece) and I didn't recall what the guide told me to this day. If you're much into history, at $25 a day, it's a bargain.

Other interesting things about Siem Reap.
1. The development seems to be happening at a quick pace. Hotels are sprouting everywhere on the way to the temples. Tourism is the #1 industry with lots of arrivals from Koreans, Chinese, Taiwanese and of course French.
2. Tourist spots have been leased out to a private company (Apsara). They collect the fees and are in charge of rehabilitating and managing the tourist spots in the Siem Reap area. It seems like a good idea if the government's core competency is not in preservation and management of tourist destinations. They even have tourist police that check your day pass.
3. $1 goes a long way in Cambodia. Dollars are well accepted over their local currency (Riels).
4. It's left hand drive in Cambodia but some car owners (including the van we rode) didn't bother to switch the steering wheels of imported right hand vans from Japan. Once our driver had to step out of the car to pick up the parking stub because of the car's unique feature. hehehe.
5. You'll be amazed at how fluent the guides are in foreign language. Of course, there are French and English speakers. We also heard guides speaking Japanese and Mandarin fluently. So fluent that they even have rehearsed jokes. How did we know? I told you we didn't get guides but my wife and I were half-listening to the Mandarin guide while we were taking pictures. :)

More to come on this Siem Reap trip...